Among the conventional automatic vending machines selling commodities such as canned beverages and plastic-bottled beverages, an automatic vending machine with a commodity storage device provided with a commodity storage column and a bucket for transporting commodities has been known. The commodity storage column is for storing a plurality of commodities in an arrangement. When a discharge device is driven, the commodity storage column discharges the commodities one by one from its front end portion.
The bucket is designed to receive the commodities discharged from the commodity storage column. The bucket is provided such that it can be moved vertically and crosswise in a front region of the commodity storage column by bucket drive means. The bucket drive means is configured by an X-axis transportation mechanism capable of moving the bucket in the crosswise direction, and a Y-axis transportation mechanism that moves the bucket including the X-axis transportation mechanism in the vertical direction.
In this type of commodity storage device, when a user throws in a certain amount of money or more and then operates a selection button, the bucket drive means is driven accordingly, moving the bucket to the front part of the commodity storage column in which a commodity that the user wishes to purchase is stored. The bucket is then moved to the vicinity of a commodity outlet after the commodity is discharged from the commodity storage column to the bucket. This configuration allows the user to take the commodity out of the commodity outlet (see Patent Document 1, for example).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-164050